SIR THOMAS URQUHART.* SIB THOMAS Uafatmea'r, the most fantastical cavalier
of a fantastical age, fully deserves the tribute of a biography. But there is a serious stumbling-block in the biographer's path; so little is known of the gallant knight that only with great pain and forethought can a book be eked out from the scanty materials. That which we have discovered of the man is discovered in his own works, for a love of autobiography never deserted him. But his name is seldom mentioned elsewhere, and though Mr. Wilcock, his latest biographer, has unearthed one or two obscure references, he could only fill his volume by including much irrelevant history. At the same time it may be said that Mr. Willoock has a proper sympathy with his hero, that he writes well and clearly, and that he has gathered within two covers all that we shall ever know of the author of The Exquisite Jewel.
Now, the Knight of Cromartie was in a sense typical both of his age and country. Born to a good but thriftless family in the North of Scotland, he was driven, like so many of his compatriots, to travel abroad. In France, in Italy, in Germany, we may be sure, he fought, and taught for his livelihood. His learning was as little suspect as his bravery, and whatever he did was distinguished by a characteristic gallantry. Should a stranger asperse the honour of Scotland, Sir Thomas's sword flew from its scabbard. "My heart," says he, "gave me the courage for adventuring in a forrain climat, thrice to enter the lists against men of three several nations, to vindicate my native country from the calumnies wherewith they had aspersed it; wherein it pleased God so to conduct my fortune, that, after I had disarmed them, they in such sort acknowledged their error, and the obligation they did owe me for sparing their lives, which justly by the law of arms I might have taken, that in lien of three enemies that formerly they were, I acquired three constant friends." And while fighting was his constant employ, he never ceased to cultivate the Muses. Wherever he went he collected books, which, says he, "were like to a compleat nosegay of flowers, which, in my travels, I had gathered out of the gardens of above sixteen several kingdoms." Would that we could con- template that nosegay to-day; but, alas ! a harsh fate pursued Sir Thomas, and while of his castle not one stone stands upon another, his books were long since scattered to the four winds of heaven.
Returned to Scotland, he was overwhelmed with difficulties from which he never emerged. Dishonest creditors tricked him of his fortune, while his loyalty to the King's cause consummated his ruin. He did his beet to oppose the Covenant, and he remained an irreconcileable to the end. Worcester was the only battlefield in which he turned his back, and after Wor- cester he was thrown into prison. But what appeared to him the heaviest blow of all, on Worcester field he lost a vast load of precious manuscripts. The few books which be left us are mere fragments of a vast design; yet they are enough to reveal his eccentric talent and his more eccentric style, nor need we believe too faithfully his own account of the disastrous fight. For exaggeration was the essence of his talent, and though no doubt he had an implicit trust in his own veracity, he could hardly exact the same treat from others.
However, it is certain that in the intervals of politics, law, and warfare he found many hours for his favourite studies, which also were eminently characteristic of the time. The problems he loved best were all insoluble, yet one and all were solved (for himself) with amusing ease ; and surely to
one who in the " IlarrozposOxasos, or a Peculiar Promptuary of
Time," derived his descent from Adam, the squaring of the circle was a mere trifle. Science, in fact, engrossed him more deeply than the common pursuits of a country gentleman, and the following passage is characteristic both of his taste and of his style :—
"There happening," he writes, "a gentleman of very good worth to stay awhile at my house, who, one day amongst many other, was pleased in the deades t time of all the winter, with a gun upon his shoulder, to search for a shot of some wild fowl ; and
• Sir Thomas Urquhart, of Cromartie. By Rev. John Willeock. Edinburgh : Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier. Las.]
after he had waded through many waters, taken excessive pains in quest of his game, and by means thereof had killed some five or six moor fowls and partridges, which he brought along with him to my house, he was by some other gentlemen very much commended for his love to sport ; and as the fashion of most of our countrymen is, not to praise one without dispraising another, I was highly blamed for not giving myself in that kind of exercise, having before my eyes so commendable a pattern to imitate ; I answered that though the gentleman deserved praise for the evident proof he had given that day of his inclina- tion to thrift and labouriousness, nevertheless I was not to blame, seeing whilst he was busied about that sport, I was employed in a diversion of another nature, such as optical secrets, mysteries of natural philosophy, reasons for the variety of colours, the finding out of the longitude, the squaring of a circle, the ways to accomplish all trigonometrical calculations by sines, without tangents, with the same compendiousness of corn- putation,—which in the estimation of learned men, would be accounted worth six hundred thousand partridges, and as many moor-fowles."
Not a sportsman, indeed, but a most sanguine philosopher, and assuredly he had the laugh the next day. For while he got up early and broke a young horse, his friend was unable to rise out of bed "by reason of the Gout and Sciatick."
But his elaborate mathematical treatises are to-day as unintelligible as his famous genealogy ; nobody cares about the universal language; and he is remembered merely as the author of The Exquisite Jewel, and as the translator of Rabelais. Now, in the Jewel Sir T. Urquhart is most clearly revealed.
The title-page could only have been devised by him, and the vindication of Scotland which follows is an image (so to say) of his own life. For therein he sets forth the most renowned exploits of the travelling Scots, who in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries covered Europe. They were learned, intrepid, high-spirited ruffiers, and excellently has Urquhart told their story. And the greatest of all was the Admirable Crichton, the legend of whom was invented by Urquhart himself. In a dozen pages of extravagantly coloured prose he relates the achievements of this " Admirabilis Scotus, or Wonderful Scot." Now his victories are won in the courtyard of the Louvre, now he conquers all the doctors of the Sorbonne. But wherever he goes he is magnificent and irresistible. Here, for instance, is a picture of Crichton as he appeared after a day's disputa- tion in the schools :—
" Notwithstanding this great honour thus purchased by him for his literary accomplishments, and that many excellent spirits to obtrive the like would be content to postpone all other employ- ments to the enjoyment of their studyes, he nevertheless the very next day (to refresh his braines, as he said, for the toile of the former day's work) went to the Louvre in a buff suit, more like a favourite of Mars than one of the Muses' minions ; where in presence of some princes of the court, and great ladies, that came to behold his gallantry, he carried away the ring fifteen times on end, and broke as many lances on the Saracen."
So, too, Sir Thomas Urquhart was, like the Crichton of his invention, both a favourite of Mars and a minion of the Muses. And if his many projects have failed, he himself was no failure, for he gave us in his Rabelais something which is very much like the perfect translation.
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